Their second LP, “SKIFF” is a new direction for The Skiffle Players. Now, they all sing and write. There is NO LEADER.

Recorded at Infinitespin Recorders in Van Nuys CA, with engineer Matt “Linny” Linesch, SKIFF begins with a bold opening; the Farmer Dave penned ‘Cara’, heavy information for the soul. Then, into classic Cass insanity on ‘Local Boy’, a wild ride on the run from the cops. Third is a touching tribute to a bygone companion, ‘Miss It When It’s Gone’, written and led by Neal.

SKIFF’s revolving perspective continues to bounce around, leaving no apparent land to stand upon. In that, it is deeply subversive. For there is nothing to defend, but the ability to transform and imagine.

The album continues to unfold back to Cass with a satire on justice, ‘The Law Offices of Dewey, Cheatum and Howe’. From the saloon ‘Long Horns, Long Necks, Long Legs’, to the rainforest ‘Herbamera’. Neal blasts in again with the sun-bleached rambler, ‘Los Angeles Alleyway’. Farmer Dave’s ‘Skiffleman’ “sings a song for everyone”. Cass plays with memory in a song about coming of age in the Bay Area on ‘Oakland Scottish Rite Temple Waltz’. Penultimately, ‘Santa Fe’, an elliptical broadside about materialism and waste. SKIFF concludes by pushing off again, out into the familiar waters of a traditional skiffle number, ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’, each member taking a perhaps all-too casual solo.

This is acoustic dance music at its finest. It is also refreshingly contradictory. Irreverent and mystical. Deeply personal and communal. Traditional and profane. The ever revolving and disintegrating ship known as SKIFF.

STORY OF THE SKIFFLE PLAYERS.

Once upon a time, Mollusk Surf shop asked Farmer Dave Scher to put together a band for a concert in Big Sur. Thus the Skiffle Players were born, selected from friends of both Californias - Northern (Cass, Dan) and Southern (Dave and Aaron) plus a New Jersey transplant to Ventura County (Neal) - each meeting at the metaphorical heart of the state, the mythical SUR. The origin concept of the band was to create a new folk fabric from the ashes of tradition - whatever the ashes of tradition means to you.

WHAT IS SKIFFLE?

A matter of debate. Although The Skiffle Players approach the definition as, broadly, ‘street music’. Busking. Singing for one’s supper. Entertaining the passers-by. Make em dance all the way home. The term may have its origin in Memphis jug band music of the 20s. It seems to have emigrated to England with the US soldiers during WW2, and was taken up by a new generation, beginning with Lonnie Donegan, ending with The Quarrymen aka The Beatles. The term then somewhat disappeared.

SO, THEN, WHAT IS WEST COAST SKIFFLE?

The Skiffle Players are the very ash to explore that question. From the beginning, no rules. No song off-limits. Everybody sings. No idea is silly enough, for sometimes the absurd is the very device for a cataclysmic rift in the fabric of sound. Of course, it can also end in hilarious catastrophe, and often does - a necessary, cosmic comedic consequence to this fearless approach. Like Kurt Vonnegut and Bo Diddley sharing a surfboard, something interesting is going to happen.

John Coltrane’s 1965 magnum opus A Love Supreme is one of the most revered and influential recordings in the history of jazz, widely regarded as the iconic saxophonist’s masterpiece. It might seem audacious at the very least to undertake a new recording of such a foundational album, but twin brothers Jared & Jonathan Mattson are nothing if not sonic risk-takers.

With their new release Mattson 2 Play “A Love Supreme,” the duo reimagines Coltrane’s avant-garde epic through a 21st-century lens, creating a new interpretation that remains faithful to the questing spirit of the original while pushing the music into bold new territory – which itself is fully in keeping with the composer’s forward-looking vision. The album, due out August 17, 2018 via Spiritual Pajamas, translates the Coltrane Quartet’s acoustic jazz explorations into a modern language swathed in a haze of analog synths, ecstatic guitars, transcendent grooves and enveloping atmospherics.

“The purpose of our reinterpretation of A Love Supreme was to lean into the spirit of exploration and transformation that’s embodied in jazz.” says Jonathan Mattson. “We don’t claim to be traditional jazz musicians, for us it’s about creatively adapting the art form, decontextualizing it, and exploring the genre in new ways. Jazz has been confined to such a narrow definition over the years and we want to make sure the genre continues to grow and evolve. It should be a living, breathing thing.”

That mission certainly fits with Coltrane’s own intentions for the piece, which is less a set composition than a framework for spiritual communion through improvisation. The Mattson brothers have a particular advantage when it comes to achieving that level of communication: the unique telepathy that exists between identical twins, an unspoken empathy that they refer to as “twinchronicity.” In A Love Supreme, the Mattsons saw a way to channel that rare connection into expansive new horizons.

The duo undertook an intensive study of the original composition, Coltrane’s notes, and every available recording by the Coltrane Quartet as well as later versions by the likes of John McLaughlin, Branford Marsalis and Alice Coltrane. They used that vocabulary to create their own take, which they honed through invaluable live performances before audiences largely unfamiliar with the original. “It was so incredible to see the way that a rock fans connected with the music,” Jonathan recalls. “There was yelling and crying, people getting really stoked and devouring every note we were playing. Seeing people’s minds getting blown by Coltrane’s music, was an inspiration for us.”

Those visceral reactions attest to the continuing impact of Coltrane’s bold vision. Mattson 2 Play “A Love Supreme” channels that vision with both reverence and inventiveness, creating a vibrant and electrifying new interpretation that will resonate with new generations of open-minded listeners.

After the instant classic and record store rare find "SKIFFLIN’" (2015), The Skiffle Players are ready to release two new works. On July 20th, the "PIFFLE SAYERS" EP. The "PIFFLE SAYERS" EP is made up of a few gems from the SKIFFLIN’ sessions, and can be considered a companion piece to their debut LP. This foreshadows the release of a new full length album scheduled for this fall.Supergroup, side project, high-school-garage-band-of-brothers-from-other-mothers, whatever you wanna call it, the band formed to play a one off show in Big Sur and had so much fun they’re still at it. On guitar, Neal Casal (Circles around the Sun) sticks mostly to the acoustic allowing his elegant affinity towards melodic craft to shine. Cass McCombs’ guitar wizardry and acclaimed compositions are at their peak, and his raw, mostly first take vocals bring the core of the song to the forefront. And when you ask yourself – “What the hell was that sound I just heard!?” - it was probably Farmer Dave, the official leader and founder of the band, his keyboard/lap steel/harmonium work is the glue that holds the flotsam together. Dan Horne’s bass (Circles around the Sun) and Aaron Sperske’s percussion (Beachwood Sparks) are so intertwined it sounds like each of them are both playing drums and bass at the same time.
STORY OF THE SKIFFLE PLAYERS.

Once upon a time, Mollusk Surf shop asked Farmer Dave Scher to put together a band for a concert in Big Sur. Thus the Skiffle Players were born, selected from both Californias - Northern (Cass, Dan) and Southern (Dave and Aaron) plus a New Jersey transplant to Ventura County (Neal) - each meeting at the metaphorical heart of the state, the mythical SUR. The origin concept of the band was to create a new folk fabric from the ashes of tradition - whatever the ashes of tradition means to you.

WHAT IS SKIFFLE?

A matter of debate. Although The Skiffle Players approach the definition as, broadly, ‘street music’. Busking. Singing for one’s supper. Entertaining the passers-by. Make em dance all the way home. The term may have its origin in Memphis jug band music of the 20s. It seems to have emigrated to England with the US soldiers during WW2, and was taken up by a new generation, beginning with Lonnie Donegan, ending with The Quarrymen aka The Beatles. The term then somewhat disappeared.

SO, THEN, WHAT IS WEST COAST SKIFFLE?

The Skiffle Players are the very ash to explore that question. From the beginning, no rules. No song off-limits. Everybody sings. No idea is silly enough, for sometimes the absurd is the very device for a cataclysmic rift in the fabric of sound. Of course, it can also end in hilarious catastrophe, and often does - a necessary, cosmic comedic consequence to this fearless approach. Like Kurt Vonnegut and Bo Diddley sharing a surfboard, something interesting is going to happen.

Youngn's Clay Finch and Sam Blasucci, the Mapache boys, are barely in
their 20s and are already rising to the top of the new wave of West
Coast Cosmic Americana. Born and raised in Glendale, California, their
breathtaking harmonies and heartfelt yet heady sound, was honed by
surfing the beaches and exploring the deserts and canyons of their
native California.

Clay spent time at Chico State while Sam missioned in Saltillo, Mexico,
living out what would become the songs on their debut album MAPACHE on
the Spiritual Pajamas label. The lineage of MAPACHE has blood running back to the first wave of
psychedelic country revivalists Beachwood Sparks. Clay is a cousin of
Beachwood main man Chris Gunst. Chris and I went to bat for MAPACHE by
helping them score their first club shows and recording sessions with
Dan Horne.

Dan eventually produced this album at the vintage analog halls of
legendary Valentine Recording Studios, where the tape rolled and
captured the live spirited harmony, skillful strumming and genuinely
well-crafted songs that everyone from Chris Robinson to
Jonathan Richman have fallen in love with. The real charm lies in the
simplicity of their voices and the songs that recall a young Gene Clark,
The Louvins, Crosby, Stills and Townes ... it's all there and more.

One memorable night they showed up to a GospelbeacH gig with deep surfer
tans and big white circles around their eyes just like
raccoons...(Mapache is Spanish for Raccoon). The boys set up on stage,
sang and played their timeless and soon to be classic songs into a
single microphone. Time stood still, and the normally chatty LA crowd
closed their mouths and opened their ears and their hearts to Mapache.
At that very moment I knew they were on their way.

You can either take a dreamy glide on the waves of the
Pacific Ocean or you can let the waves engulf you...either way your senses take
in something that’s not unlike the sparkling music and voices of Light
Fantastic.

The sophisticated yet innocent jangle of their debut long
player “Out of View” on the Spiritual Pajamas label is a fresh neighbor to the
trippy head music for which San Francisco is usually known.But somehow it lives quite happily in the
midst of giant Redwoods, the thick cold waters of the foggy coast, or the laid
back urgency of a late night out in the Mission with your head in the clouds.From The Fillmore, to The Whisky a Go-Go, to
The Hacienda in Manchester, the 10 songs on “Out of View” work as a sort of
View Master/Time Machine..."feels like I’ve been here before"…and you
wanna stay for a while and smile.

Terry Sowers, chief songwriter armed with his trusty
Rickenbacker 6-string and melancholy vocal/lyric delivery, powers the Light
Fantastic.Bassman Jeremy Bringetto hooks
you in with his super melodic but well-rounded bass lines while Rachel Hoiem twinkles
and pads the songs with her keyboards and harmonies.Recording mastermind Rex Shelverton and his
colorful guitar comes through like a light house in heavy fog lighting the way
for the group and Terry’s tunes to take you on a trip.This ain't what you call surf rock but you'll
find these guys out on every swell.And
if you do surf, these are the tunes that are in your head while you’re paddling
for the next wave...the next wave? LIGHT FANTASTIC